


Swan Song- An Alternative Ending

by deanandsam



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 5.22, AU, Angry Dean, Brother Angst, Gen, Protective Dean, Swan Song, sam and dean - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 07:31:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6229300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanandsam/pseuds/deanandsam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Au tag to Swan Song.<br/>Dean has no intention of letting Sam jump into the Cage, so he comes up with a rather shaky plan of his own to save his little brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

:  
Dean didn't know how he'd managed to hold his emotions in check while Sam explained his plan for putting the Devil back into the Cage; of how he'd agree to be Lucifer's vessel and then throw himself into the pit for all eternity.  
He'd listened silently to Sam's guilt trip about everything being his fault and how Lucifer had been freed because of his stupidity; of how his little brother had to make amends and take his punishment for what he'd done.  
:  
If ever Dean Winchester merited an Oscar for his acting, it would have been for those moments in Bobby's yard as he listened to his brother.  


Sam seemed calm but Dean could hear the underlying tremor of fear in his little brother's voice while he talked and Dean's heart grew hard and pitiless against those who had driven his brother to such a terrible decision.  
His whole essence was screaming, "No! Never! No!" but he kept his face impassive and did his best to give Sam the impression that he was considering his plan  
:  
Dean was furious, but not with Sam, never with Sammy, because he and Sam were a team, brothers, and he understood him better than he did himself, perhaps because Sam WAS himself, as much a part of Dean as an arm or a leg and there was NO way he was going to let his little brother jump into that Cage with Lucifer.  
:  
:

 

Dean had intimately experienced the horrors of Hell, the agony, the desperation, the hopelessness, the psychological tortures tailored to hurt even more than the physical ones. He'd been there, and he knew that while there was breath in his body Sammy wasn't going to suffer any of it.  


He was Dean's responsibility and whether he be seven or twenty-seven, a skinny kid or a giant Sasquatch, it made no difference. His little brother was NOT going to be the sacrificial lamb for the master-plan of a worthless bunch of angels and demons.

With the others, Castiel, Crowley and Bobby, he kept up the same impassive face, somehow seeing them in a different light, inordinately irritated by their easy acceptance of Sam's extreme decision, as if they subconsciously believed it was exclusively his little brother's fault, and it was fair and just that he should be the one to make amends.

Bobby's words especially, had hurt the elder Winchester. Surely his surrogate father should have known better than to ask him if he was "more afraid of losing, or of losing his brother?"  
Dean's great acting skills had stopped him from gawking openly at Bobby.  
Did the older hunter really not get it?  
Dean didn't give a fuck about losing, but he cared passionately about NOT losing his brother.

He understood Castiel's motives better, though he personally agreed with nothing the angel believed.  
While Castiel manifested sympathy for Sam's plight, Dean was well aware he'd always looked down on Sammy as an abomination; a human tainted with demon blood, designed and destined as a vessel for the devil himself.  
From the angel's point of view, Sam jumping into the Cage with Lucifer to stop the Apocalypse was a sacrifice which was eminently acceptable.

As for Crowley, he could exhibit that friendly face as much as he wished, but Dean didn't need to have an Honours degree in Psychology to understand the demon was only in it for his own gain.  
He was a demon, for God's sake; but at least you knew where you stood with him.  
Crowley wanted Lucifer out of the way so he could be the Big Kahuna in Hell. Understandable from his point-of-view, but for Dean completely unimportant.  
He couldn't give a fuck who was King of Hell!  
:  
So Dean passed the rest of the day as a yes man, outwardly approving all the plans that were being made to effectively condemn his baby brother to eternal torment, while secretly working on his own agenda to achieve the exact opposite.

He'd far rather have avoided that Sam accept Lucifer into himself, but his plan to save Sammy and put the cat amongst the pigeons as far as the Apocalypse was concerned, unfortunately hinged on that.

The idea was simple, so simple that it seemed too easy, but if it didn't come off and Sam DID end up in the Cage, then Dean would be right behind him.  


Prior to Dean himself being freed from Hell, he'd already been on the road to demonhood, having taken Alastair's razor in his hand.  
So if he did end up with his brother in the Cage, he'd have no reserves about becoming a fully-fledged one if it could be of help to his brother, and if it did happened, then he'd take out his revenge for all that had been done to the Winchesters.  


God help the supernatural world if Dean Winchester became embodied with demon powers. He was no broody saint like Sammy was!  
:  
:  
:  
Sam had gone to the appointment in Stull Cemetery as convened, while Dean had made his preparations to get his brother back.  
He and the Impala roared into the graveyard to the rhythm of Rock of Ages, disturbing the little angel/devil get together.

He looked into his little brother's eyes as Lucifer turned his glare on him, but the expression in those puppy-eyes was not Sam's.

"What do you want Dean?" Lucifer asked, actually surprised at his presence. "I left you alive as a gift to Sam but if you become too annoying I'll be forced to revise my decision."

:  
Dean once more gave free rein to his acting chops. "I only came to give my brother a hug before the fight, for whether you win or lose, Lucifer, I'll never see him again."  


"You've already said your good-byes, Dean. I've no patience left for your delaying tactics." Lucifer lifted his hand ready to strike.

"I promise that if you let me have a last word with Sam, I'll turn and leave and I won't ever get in your way again. It seems small thing to ask for such a big promise on my part," Dean pleaded, a grief-stricken expression on his face.

" Lucifer," Michael's voice rang out impatiently. "Give the human what he wants and let's get on with it."

"Dean, Dean, Dean, the things I do for Sammy!" Lucifer sighed theatrically in the pseudo-friendly way he had, holding out his arms. 

Shuffling unsteadily forward, eyes and body-language duly miserable, Dean conjured up the perfect image of a man desperate to give his brother one last good-bye before losing him forever.  
:  
:  
"Sammy, I'm sorry " Dean whispered as he put an arm round his little brother's neck, ostensibly to embrace him........and pushed an angel sword through his body.  
Dean's hate–filled eyes met the surprised ones of Lucifer, his angel essence illuminating Sam's body from the inside, culminating in the Devil's death.

Dean carefully extracted the weapon.  
He'd tried to do as little damage as possible, hoping to avoid any vital organs. He cradled Sam in his arms, uncaring of the astounded expressions of the three onlookers, unsure of what they'd just witnessed.  
Even Michael seemed striken, unsure of how to deal with this new situation. Without Lucifer, there could be no Apocalypse.  
:  
:  
"Dean', Sam's voice whispered weakly. "What happened?"  
"Shh, little brother, you'll be fine. We've got to get you to an hospital. Don't worry. Big brother's here," Dean soothed, pulling a wad of cotton from his jacket and pushing down on the wound.

As if his ginormous little brother weighed no more than a feather, Dean picked him up and carried him to the car, laying him carefully on the rear seat, ignoring the others and driving away from the cemetery. He kept expecting Michael to smite him but nothing happened, and Dean didn't waste time looking back over his shoulder.

He didn't want to hear or give explanations. He had what he wanted, Sam, and nobody was going to get near him again.  
His brother would be seen to in hospital, by human doctors. He wanted no more favours from the supernatural world.  
If by any chance Sam didn't pull through, well Dean wouldn't be long in joining him wherever he went!

tbc


	2. Chapter 2

Dean sat by the hospital bed, his callused hands clasping his brother's. 

Luckily enough he'd calculated well the angle of the blade avoiding injury to any major organs, but his little brother was dosed up to the gills with pain-killers and antibiotics after the surgery to repair the lacerated internal tissues.

For the Gigantor that he was, his brother looked small and vulnerable lying there and Dean was touched by just what Sammy had been willing to sacrifice to stop the Apocalypse.

Dean's heart always broke into a thousand pieces when Sammy was ill or injured but he would take this over the alternative.  
Images of Sam being hacked to pieces and tortured in the most horrible ways just wouldn't leave his mind. They weren't just imagination, they came from Dean's atrocious personal experience, he'd suffered those self-same tortures for forty long years in Hell.

Playing the torturer instead of the victim had only been another method of torment, especially for Dean whose motto had been saving people, not skinning them alive or hacking them to pieces!  
:  
He was perfectly content sitting here at Sam's bed-side; this was the only place he desired to be.  
When his little brother opened his eyes Dean wanted to be the first person he saw in order to soothe Sam's fears and comfort him, not some unknown nurse or doctor, however sympathetic they might be.  


Oh, the staff had tried to pry him away from his brother's side but they'd desisted at the stubborn look on Dean's face.  
He was staying here until Sam got out, no matter how long it took.  
There might still be douche-bags out there who could want to harm him while he was lying here helpless.  
:  
He'd gone to Stull Cemetery to kill Lucifer but Dean hadn't been sure his plan was going to work, though if it hadn't he'd vowed to himself he was going in along with Sam.  
His little brother was the only reason he lived and fought on; without him there would have been no motive to remain on Earth, and for what he'd seen of Heaven they could keep it!

It would have been worse than Hell there without Sam, knowing that while he was drinking a beer in Ash's heavenly road-house, his little brother was being ripped to shreds by Lucifer.  
:  
He shuddered, letting go of his brother's hand for a moment and rushing to the bathroom, acid bile invading his gullet at the mental pictures of what could have been Sam's fate.

A few minutes later he came back out holding a wet towel to his face, but all thoughts of the Cage left his mind when his eyes fell on the figure standing at the other side of Sam's bed.  
"Get away from him," Dean snarled, fiercer than any she-wolf defending its young.  
:  
:  
"Dean. You are angry?"  
The angel cocked his head to the side as if trying to understand. "You saved your brother and stopped the Apocalypse; you should be happy. I can cure him if you wish," said Castiel, reaching out a hand.

"I said get away from him. He doesn't need your insta-cure. If he's still here with me now, it's no thanks to you or your feathery friends. I don't want to talk about it, so get out."  
"Dean…."

"No excuses!" Dean hissed, his voice low and deadly.  
"Everyone was quite happy with Sam's sacrificial-lamb plan to take all the blame on his shoulders---Death, Crowley, your two-faced angel buddies---all of you, and though it breaks my heart to say it, even Bobby, whom I'd thought would have been as set on stopping Sam as I was.  
So yes! I AM angry and the only thing I want now is to see my brother on his feet again, so go back to wherever it is you usually hang out and leave us alone."  
:  
"Dean, your brother's plan was a noble one, no one forced him to do it, but it was honourable of him to want to put the Devil back in the Cage. After all he was the one who let him out," said Castiel incautiously.  
Dean's temper which was already at red-alert level went into overdrive as he circled the bed and grabbed the trench-coated angel by the lapels,  
:  
"Now you listen here and go tell it to your douchey friends. My little brother is the innocent in this whole miserable little story. He asked for none of it, not Azazel, not the demon-blood, not all the lies that were told to him by everyone, especially that bitch Ruby. He didn't deserve any of it, okay! So shut up!"  
:  
For a second, the angel's face took on a guilty expression, somewhat unusual for a visage that rarely showed any emotion.  
But Dean was a master at picking up on facial nuances; it was part of his job description.  
:  
"What aren't you telling me Cas?" he demanded suspiciously, when the angel averted his eyes.

 

Castiel was so powerful he could have beaten Dean to a pulp if he'd wanted to, but when he turned his gaze back to the human, the sheer power that emanated from Dean's eyes made him shiver.

Against all odds Dean had killed the Devil, making it seem so easy.  
Lucifer could be killed by an angel blade, but usually the vessel died too, yet Sam had survived. Castiel was beginning to believe the absent God had not been so absent at Stull Cemetery after all.  
If this were true, then Dean and Sam Winchester were more enigmatic than he'd believed, if God himself who had not answered anyone's prayers, not even the Winchesters themselves when they visited Heaven, had disturbed his exile to help Dean save his brother.  
:  
Castiel stared at Dean in awe. He was truly Heaven's weapon.

"I repeat, what are you not telling me Cas?" Dean's voice was colder than the Antarctic winds that whipped across the bleak landscape of that white continent.

Castiel confessed to what he'd done, the words coming out of his mouth almost of their own volition.  
"When Sam was in the panic room, I was the one who let him out, to go and free Lucifer." There he'd said it.

Dean let go of his coat and stepped back, a sneer on his lips. "Well, well, well," he smirked. "The truth is starting to come out, eh? How everyone was in on making my Sammy the scapegoat for having let Lucifer out.  
'Et tu, Brute!' You should read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar when you go back to Heaven, Cas. I'm sure you'd enjoy it. Now get the fuck out of here while you still can!"

 

Dean turned his back on the angel and circled the bed, where he sat down in the chair next to Sam and took his brother's hand in his own.  
Sam's eye-lids fluttered and he sighed softly as if his brother's touch had been received and understood. 

Dean was oblivious to all but the figure on the bed. He wasn't going to waste his time going over who had done what.  
His little brother had been betrayed by everyone, even by himself, and as soon as he was out of here, he was going to track down Sam's amulet, and he'd get it back even if he had to sift through months of smelly trash.

He owed it to him, and he wanted that ugly little thing back round his neck where nine-year old Sammy had watched him put it all those years ago.  
At that moment Dean Winchester couldn't have been happier.  
He was holding the most important thing in the universe in his two hands.  
tbc


	3. Chapter 3

Dean's head fell drowsily on to the starched bed cover, his brother's hand securely clasped in his own.  
He'd been here for two days straight now; forty-eight hours of keeping vigil over his unconscious little brother.

The doctors had assured him that Sam could awaken at any time and he hadn't wanted to leave his side in case he freaked out at not seeing him there when he opened his eyes.

Dean didn't see any of this as a chore, his place was right here, there wasn't anywhere else he wanted to be. 

It was all perfectly logical to him. Sam was his responsibility and he was Sam's. They looked after each other. End of story.

He couldn't imagine them ever living a different life to a hunting one, but even if one day that should happen and others were to come into their lives, in ultimate analysis it would always boil down to Dean and Sam, Sam and Dean!

"Soul-mates share the same Heaven," Ash had stated on their visit to his solitary Road-House hideaway, and Dean and Sam had exchanged embarrassed glances, knowing full well that the soul-mates the computer genius was referring to, was them.  
:

 

Sam stirred fretfully, his body on its path to consciousness, distracting Dean's mind from his musings.  
He heard a noise outside the door and he wearily raised his head to greet whoever of the medical staff had come to fuss around his brother, but the person who came through the door was a well–known face.

"Dean," Bobby nodded matter-of-factly as he entered the room. "How is he?"  
Dean had had forty-eight hours of free time to do nothing else but review the whole Stull Cemetery affair, and the red-hot anger which had filled him had cooled a little now he was certain Sam would recover.

"Bobby." Dean acknowledged, waiting for the older man to speak first.

"I'd have come sooner but I got a visit from your angel buddy telling me I'd be better waiting a while before facing the "lion in his den," I believe is what he said.  
Dean was torn between his love and respect for Bobby and the memory of the easy way he'd gone along with Sam's crappy idea of spending the rest of eternity in the Cage, but Sammy was safe now and there was no point in taking it out on the older man.

It had been, was and always would be Dean's job to look after Sammy and he couldn't really expect anyone else to feel as fiercely as he did for his brother.

Dean turned his attention back to the figure in the bed.  
"He's gonna be okay. Luckily enough the sword didn't perforate anything that couldn't be patched up. He should be waking up soon, or so they've told me."

"You wanna go get a coffee or a bite to eat. I'll keep watch over sleeping beauty there for you," Bobby offered knowing that nothing would tear Dean away from his brother's side until he saw him awake and talking.  
If there was anything Dean and Bobby shared it was their dislike of chick-flick moments but Bobby realised this thing between him and Dean would be hanging in the air if it wasn't thrashed out.

As if Dean had read his mind, he said, "It's okay, Bobby. You don't have to explain. We can just put it all behind us. Sam's gonna be all right and that's all that matters to me."  
Devil of a boy, Bobby thought to himself. He's psychic now too!  
:  
"Why didn't you say anything, boy? Why didn't you just say no to what your brother was planning? We'd have tried to come up with somethin' else."

Dean smiled ironically. "Everyone sure seemed okay with Sammy's little idea and I went along with it because I knew I'd never have let Sam do it anyway.  
I thought my crappy little plan would have a better chance of success if I was the only one in on it. No offence, but a secret is such only if you don't share.  
Sammy's life and after-life was at stake and I was taking no chances of any details getting out.  
So I pretended to agree with everything that was said, just for show."  
.  
"Well, you certainly fooled us all. We thought you were good to go with Sam's plan. Great acting boy, though I gotta say you couldn't be certain your plan would've worked. What if you'd killed Lucifer and Sam had died too, which is what usually happens with a vessel."

Dean shrugged his shoulders unconcernedly.  
"Moot point now. For whatever reason, it worked, but if my little scheme had gone wrong and Sam had ended up in the Cage with Lucifer then there would have been two Winchesters down there.  
I wouldn't have left Sammy alone.  
Even in the Cage he'd have needed his big brother to give him a basic course of "How to survive in Hell 101"  
:  
Bobby stared at him incredulously. "You'd have jumped in after your brother?"

"You really think I'd have stayed behind and lived out the rest of my life knowing what was being done to Sam. Maybe you don't know me as well as you think," Dean answered with a touch of hostility, turning a baleful glare on the older hunter.  
Bobby continued to stare at him, shaking his head slowly. "No, boy, maybe I don't!"

 

The squeak of the opening door had coincided with Sam's return to consciousness. 

The younger Winchester wanted to open his eyes but his eyelids seemed to weigh a ton and they wouldn't collaborate with his wishes.  
He knew Dean was at his side. No need for open eyes there, as his big brother had his hand solidly clasped between his own. His eyes could wait till whenever they were ready.  
Dean was sitting by his side and that's all that mattered.

Sam's ears were back to normal though, and he listened in as Bobby began to talk.  
He'd wondered what the Hell was going on when Dean had asked Lucifer to embrace him one last time, and he'd sensed the Devil's utter surprise when the angel blade had penetrated his essence. 

Sam had felt the excruciating pain of the blade pierce his body but then he'd fallen into blessed unconsciousness. He wasn't quite sure what had happened afterwards.

Dean had killed Lucifer. The fallen angel could conceivably be killed with the angelic blade but surely his vessel should have died too, or maybe not!  
Whatever! Lucifer was dead and he, Sam was alive, and he had Dean to thank for that.

 

"….but if my plan had gone wrong and Sam had ended up in the Cage with Lucifer…..then he wouldn't have gone down alone….."jumped in after your brother"…. "You really think I would have stayed behind and lived out the rest of my life knowing what was being done to Sam."  
What was Dean saying, Sam wondered to himself, as he zoned in on snippets of his and Bobby's conversation?

He would have jumped in after me? Sam felt the panic rising in his chest at the thought. Dean had already suffered in Hell for him. Once was enough.  
"No..." Sam said, his voice coming out as a whisper but it was loud enough to get Dean's attention.  
"Sammy," Dean murmured in the voice he kept for when Sam was injured, the same tone he'd used since Sam could remember understanding it.

Bobby took his cue. He knew this moment was exclusive to the two brothers and he quietly exited the room.

"Sammy," Dean repeated again, brushing back the damp sticky hair from his brother's face." You with me, bro?"

"Present and accounted for," Sam muttered, his brother's touch soothing him. "I heard what you said to Bobby," he continued tiredly.

"I said a lot of things to Bobby, anything in particular?" Dean chuckled.  
Now that his brother was awake, his cockiness had started to make a tentative return.

"About jumping into the Cage after me. You know I never wanted you to do that. I wanted you to go and have a life with Lisa, " Sam slurred, his tongue feeling enormous in his mouth.

"I get it that Bobby might not know everything about me but I thought my Stanford, geeky, genius little brother did," smiled the elder Winchester.  
"Dean…!"

Sam didn't have to hear Dean's words confirming what he would have done. It was exactly what he had been trying to avoid.  
There had been no point in both of them suffering the same fate.

But just in case Sam didn't get it Dean made it very clear. "If you'd finished up in the Cage you'd have had company, and if you'd been killed along with Lucifer when I knifed you, you'd still have had company because a gun to the head does the job.  
You go, I go little brother!"

"And where you go, I go too, Dean," was Sam's whispered reply, his long fingers wrapping themselves around his big brother's hands.  
The End


End file.
